Shore Lore: Beached freighter leads to business boon

During the early winter months of 1960, the St. Mary’s of-the-Harbor Church in Provincetown planned a Smorgasbord supper for Saturday night, Feb. 20.

Little did the Episcopal congregation — or anyone else on the Cape tip — realize just how big of a Swedish and supper event that winter weekend would turn out to be.

It was on this night the 258-foot Swedish freighter Monica Smith ran aground at Hatches Harbor, just south of Race Point, during a “clear-skied gale,” according to The Cape Codder.

It would take several attempts and six days before the vessel was able to resume its run from New Bedford to Nova Scotia.

“When the tide went out, she was completely out of water and made a perfect attraction for Cape residents on the holiday weekend,” the Codder reported.

“Thousands of cars streamed to the State Beach at Provincetown, parked and their occupants walked the mile or so down the beach to scratch initials on the ship’s plates.”

As one veteran policeman noted, “It looks like the middle of July,” and you don’t have to be a Wall Street executive to know that means the cash registers were ringing.”

“The event was an unexpected boon to Cape-end business,” according to the Codder. “Those Provincetown restaurants that were open soon ran out of food. And you couldn’t buy a roll of film until you got back to Orleans. Camera enthusiasts had a field day and good photographs were a dime a dozen.”

Another local newspaper had this account: “Not since the total eclipse of the sun back in ’32 have we seen such an off-season run of traffic to the Cape. We’ve heard reports that roadside petrol stations are doing summer business volume, and more than one Truro man has been heard to murmur he wished had a quarter for every car that’s rolled down the pike since the freighter Monica Smith went ashore near Race Point in Provincetown. Chief Berrio says he has been on the highway constantly, patrolling the stream of automobiles.”

As for the Stockholm-based freighter, she had already unloaded 2,500 tons of cement at Fall River and dropped off 150 small cars in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

On board, there was still 20 tons of Danish blue cheese, along with the Monica Smith’s disgruntled captain, John Gustrind.

Reasons for the mishap “remained obscure as her master sulked in his cabin, refusing to discuss matters,” the Codder reported.

On Monday, Feb. 23, tugs moved the grounded vessel a few feet before a cable snapped. Three days later, Captain Frank A. Shepherd, salvage master for Merritt, Chapman, and Scott Salvage Company, was finally successful.

According to Orleans historian Sam Sherman’s website, samsscrapbook.com, the Monica Smith was “set free by two efforts: the tugboat ‘Orion’ and the crew's efforts in ‘kedging’, a process of putting the anchors in deep waters and using the ship's own winches to pull itself free.”

The Monica Smith was freed early on Feb. 25 and reached Provincetown Harbor shortly after noon, then left at 5:30 p.m. to complete the trip to St. John’s, New Brunswick, after getting the OK from inspectors.

The vessel gave a farewell burst of her whistle upon leaving the harbor, and, according to the Feb. 26, 1960 edition of the Cape Cod Standard Times, gave “Long Point a wide berth as she led to resume her interrupted voyage.”

The paper had a photograph of 12-year-old Tucker Souza, son of Chief Boatswain’s Mate Arthur Souza of the Race Point Coast Guard Station, bidding the Monica Smith farewell.

With local eateries running low on food, the Codder reported some locals “suggested that it might be a good idea to open a Swedish restaurant on board.” Local electrician Al Bettencourt, happened to overhear Wellfleet’s Henry Carlson acting as a translator for the Scandinavian ship’s crew as they were hoisting boxes of groceries on board.

“I noticed a big bag of linguica in the grocery box,” Bettencourt said. “Wonder how Henry explained what that was in Swedish?”

Don Wilding, a writer and public speaker on Cape Cod lore, can be reached via email at donwilding@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @WildingsCapeCod. Shore Lore appears every other week.